Sarah Palin Finds New Year’s Inspiration From Trig Stepping On His Dog

Sarah Palin welcomed the new year yesterday by posting Facebook photographs on of her son Trig stepping on the family dog. Unfortunately for Palin, her followers did not find the photos as uplifting and inspirational as she did.

May 2015 see every stumbling block turned into a stepping stone on the path forward. Trig just reminded me. He, determined to help wash dishes with an oblivious mama not acknowledging his signs for “up!”, found me and a lazy dog blocking his way. He made his stepping stone.

Palin posted three photos of Trig. One showed him climbing on the dog’s back and another showed him turning toward the camera after he’d finished.

So Palin was either not as oblivious as she claimed or (my guess) she thought the sight of her son standing on the dog’s back was so cute, she had him do it again for the camera.

Whatever it was, Palin’s followers were less than enchanted.

Debbie Schinski: “I like Sarah a lot, her conversative values etc. But I too thought this post was not well thought through. I love animals and yes it does appear the dog is not in pain. However I found myself feeling badly for the dog. It’s inappropriate to allow him to stand on the dog and obviously inappropriate to post.”

Sylvia Highburger: "The 6 year old Trig has some weight and for him to step on a relaxed Dog’s Spine will cause problems; my friednd’s dog had a similiar injury, and the dog was paralyzed in his hindquarters for almost a year. The dog was treated with accupuncture and spinal manipulations for him to recover. Pretty spendy, and much care needed. This is often how children get bitten for abusing Dogs. Please teach Trig how to treat the Dog humanely, and not as a stepping stool."

Gwen Hoffman: “This is so wrong and is animal cruelty. Just because your son has a disability is no excuse to not teach respect and compassion for animals,” My Mom would never have allowed my precious Downs Syndrom sister to abuse or mistreat any animal. This is no way to teach a child to act, or be a responsible parent."

Carrie Smith Rotty: "How can you just let that child stand on that dog?!? Pure stupidity on your part mom. When that dog is hurt and snaps or bites, you better remember who is at fault-YOU!"

Showing 15 reactions

I often hunt and eat dogs, so using one as a stool is hardly torture. To prepare dog, I just love a recipe that Lynne’s family perfected. First it is necessary to isolate the canine in a cage with only water for two weeks, whereupon an extremely large pot of rice is prepared and fed to the dog allowing allowing it to, in essence, stuff itself. I always get a chuckle out of that delightful irony.

Then it’s on to the spit for a good four to six hour roast depending on the size of the pet.

The bottom line is that that child was stepping on a dog (his service dog, according to some) rather than a step stool. A dog is ALIVE, it feels PAIN, and that is not a small child. He’s learned that this behavior is appropriate because his mother is a complete and utter fuckwit who has NO respect for animals and no common sense whatsoever. She has zero respect for animals – and she’s instilled this in her children. Trig is not responsible for his actions – SHE is. A good parent would have gently corrected this behavior and not posted a goddamned picture on Facebook beaming at how he found his way around a problem.

I can’t believe anyone would even THINK to defend this in any way, shape or form. Simple Sarah had NO PROBLEM with this – there was no correction afterward, there was no admitting that this was inappropriate behavior. She was fucking PROUD of him finding a way to reach the sink by stepping on an animal to do so – I think that was clear.

I relate this to a slightly similar situation in my area several years ago. The special needs child had never been taught how to act with the family dog and was prone to be a bit rough. Every time the dog responded as dogs are prone to do he was punished. Over time the dog learned to put up with the abuse without complaint. Until one day little “Tommy” went beyond the dogs tolerance level and released all of his frustration on Tommy" to the tune of multiple deep bite wounds which resulted in Tommy spendind several weeks in intensive care. The dog was accused of being viscious and slated to be put down. Some neighbors and family members came to the dogs defense and ratted out the parents, who were arrested for child neglect and animal cruelty. The upshot was they almost lost their child and faced jail time and heavy fines on top of the astronomical medical bills. I don’t recall what it ended up costing them, other than it was near $200K And the dog found a new home with a family who knew the right was to treat a sweet animal. Tommy still carries the physical and emotional scars 30-some years later.

As I’ve posted on Facebook in two stauses and multiple comments, kids will be kids. The internet’s full of parents who’ll take pictures like this the first time they sit it, then do something. Whether or not that’s bad parenting is entirely your opinion, my own is that if the child’s not heavy enough to be visibly hurting the dog, reserve judgement unless the parent thinks it’s awesome.

And that is where Palin fails- Hard. Not only did she think it was inspirational, but her inserted message was that she as reminded that it’s cool to trample people to get what you want. Extra points for a wording that could easily sound like she’s talking about poor people when it inevitably get posted out of context by some psuedo-satire site.